Biden’s remarks underscore the support of the United States for the operation. The Pentagon is providing air support for Turkey and its Salafist “rebels” in direct violation of Syria’s national sovereignty.

The statement also reveals US support for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s terms regarding the Kurds. Last week the United States failed to respond to a similar demand issued by Ankara.

Moreover, Biden’s comment reveals the United States is not sincerely interested in defeating the Islamic State in Syria and the objective is to push Bashar al-Assad from power. The Kurds have played an important role in the war against the Syrian government and the Islamic State. Last week the Kurds, assisted by US special forces, pushed the terror group out of Manbij in northern Syria.

The Syrian government has fought the Kurds to prevent them from carving out territory in the country.

The Kurds undoubtedly now view Biden as a turncoat. In April Biden traveled to Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan to hold discussions with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani. At the time, Washington announced it would give $415 million to the Kurdish Peshmerga.

In August Biden made a phone call to Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Abadi and encouraged the Iraqi government to cooperate with the Kurdistan Regional Government to defeat the Islamic State.

In March Barzani said the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and the U.S.-backed Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria “are exactly one and the same thing.”